Autumn Lineup

 Autumn Lineup  11x14 original oil painting  $224.50 

I usually spend the late fall looking for the last spots of color that are left in a now drab landscape. Its like a treasure hunt, each day that passes gets harder and harder to find some brillant color. And when you finally do it like finding a treasure.

 I found this set of trees at sunrise on Nov 20th  and painted this 5x7 study on location. The sun moves so quickly at this time of morning so  I hurried to catch the shaft of light that lit up the trees.

This is the photo reference I took sitting in my truck BEFORE I started painting.
Sometimes I forget to do this step when I'm in a rush to catch the light.
You can see I edited out some things, the bare tree in the foreground and the blacktop.
I only included the things that re-enforced my initial feelings about the scene, the reason it made me stop.
Everything else is unimportant.

It was a great morning treasure hunting.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Paintings from the flyfishing trip

This leaf came from the maple tree outside the cabin. This year only a few leaves turned while we were there, the tree was still mostly green. Half the leaf was bright red the other half was starting to turn brown.

This is the maple tree this year.

I did this painting at night back at the cabin from the study I did at the stream.

This is the study done streamside, I wanted to capture the shaft of sunlight on the tree and its reflection in the stream. While I was doing this Tom caught three brook trout further upstream.

This shows me with my paintbox on a blowdown and the scene I painted.

I painted this at the cabin at night from the pencil sketch  I did that day. It helps doing these color studies as soon as possible while the scene is still fresh in your mind.

This is the pencil sketch I did standing in the stream watching Tom.

This is the view standing on the porch looking out thru the stand of pines to the mountains in the back. Every morning the fog is here at dawn, along with the 39 degree temps too.

This was painted at dawn another day with a heavier fog trying to hide the mountains in the back.

These sketches done on location will help me when its time to do studio paintings, I will have all the information needed concerning color, values,and mood. And you end up learning a little more every time you go out.

As a side note- eariler in the year my camera fell out of my vest and into the stream rendering it useless. The second camera I brought developed problems a week before the trip, it keeps shorting out the new batteries after taking 2 pictures, so I was cameraless this trip. When I got home there was a package there for me.
How suprised I was to find a camera just like my original one that took a swim in the stream. My wife had ordered one the day I left on our trip. She's the greatest.